NeoGrognard

So while writing my last column about the Red Box, there was a constant caveat within my mind but I didn’t bother to put it in the column. I don’t think the Red Box will be an entire success in serving its two masters unless the distribution realities of D&D gained a significant boost. Then, and hour or so after the column posted, word came from Twitter and other places that the Red Box (and maybe other D&D Essentials products) would be carried by Target (and there would be commercials on Hulu…who-hoo!). This may be the game changer, and to be honest I’m surprised Wizards pulled it off.

Now a while ago I wrote about how many D&D players there actually were, rather than the 3.5 million usually touted by WotC. It was somewhat controversial  as my estimate was low—shockingly low to some.

Was that number always true? Probably not. Back when I was a kid and a teenager, you could buy Dungeons & Dragons at Sears and J.C. Penny. It was strange, really. When I first started in the early 80s, it was really hard to find anything D&D. You search out strange stores sometimes in sketchy parts of town. And then it was everywhere—this was at about the time that the 1e books got fresh new Jeff Easley covers and the original Red Box saw release. All the sudden I could step into a department stores and buy books, order them through catalogs (the early form of internet shopping), and go into a toy stores and buy the game along with D&D action figures and stickers. Then a couple of years later they seemed to disappear almost as soon as they showed up, probably due to the 60 Minutes segment on the game.

(BTW, if you listen closely you will find the source of the 3.5 million active players, it’s “news” article. It’s just been recycled over and over again.)

Say what you want about the validity of the arguments made by 60 Minutes and the anti-D&D forces of the time (including Dr. Radecki’s mind boggling statement that parents saw their child summon demons… wow! quacky quack quack!) those delusional forces did win the war of hearts and minds at the time, while Gygax and his PR dude came off as defensive and insensitive pricks who were using D&D money to shut down investigations. Remember that this is the height of the great Satanism scare of the 80s. It was a strange time.

After the piece, I remember having the talk with my parents that they would watch my behavior closely due to the game. I remember kids at school asking my gamer friends and me whether we were going to kill ourselves because D&D told us to. Only a few were being mean and facetious. Some were actually legitimately concerned. People trusted 60 Minutes. They were scared that this strange game with its strange dice could do. And as they say on Arrakis, fear is the mind killer.

One of the chief results of resulting fervor was that mainstream retailers stopped carrying D&D. I’m sure that there may have been other factors. Keeping up with the every expanding product list was probably daunting to these outlets. Game stores will put up with it, because they are specialty stores—their inventory is specialized, their knowledge is specialized, the customers are specialized. But standard retail is all about the introduction and upkeep. It’s about keeping things simple, and the consistent churn of product.

Now think about how the Red Box and the entire Essentials line are packaged. It’s the return of the boxed set, because we are returning to a mainstream retail model of distribution. This is the reason why we originally had boxed sets. They are about the introduction. They introduced you to the rules (Basic Set, Expert Set, Companion Set, Immortals Set) or to a campaign setting (World of Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms), but later, when the retail channels dwindled this became skewed and TSR began experimenting with the boxed set (Planescape, Al Qadim) it was the beginning of the end. I often wonder how much of those printing problems had to do with the expense of the products being created by TSR. Just about every D&D sub-line seems to be an excuse to experiment with mix of in-the-box new packaging.  When old TSR fell, and Wizards of the Coast figured out that boxed sets were an expensive format for distribution to book stores and game stores, the only time we saw D&D boxed sets was when there was some kind of hope for mass market distribution (Basic Sets, D&D Clue). Not all of those hopes materialized.

Getting the Essentials line into Target is a real coup. It gives D&D the chance to perform in the mass market again after almost 25 years. If you are interested in putting forward the hobby and the activity of RPGs to a larger audience, gaining and keeping success in the mass market is crucial. It’s an avenue that D&D and RPGs in general can increase its player base. And that’s what we need, because the current success of Pathfinder aside, RPGs are slowly dying. What do I mean by slowly…probably a little slower than the speed that my generation is slowly dying.

Now don’t spit out your coffee and start getting all nerd ragey on me just yet. Sit down, count to ten, and think about it. You know I’m right. Other than D&D and Pathfinder (which is basically D&D made by D&D nerds wanting to keep to their favorite vision of D&D), you have only a  small handful of other successful games. Two among that handful (or four of them, depending on how you count it) are Games Workshop licenses that they can’t even be bothered to make. Hell, Warhammer 40K is more out and about than RPGs are.  At least they have retail stores with play spaces. As RPGers we hid on the internet, stay within our small niche of friends, and complain about games companies’ stupid marketing practices. We make it seem like to play this game you have to be a curmudgeon.

There are only a few twisted fucks like me who actually like being a curmudgeon! It’s not sexy, it’s not fun! Just like games that aren’t fun die, games that don’t seem like fun die.

But RPGs are fun. This is a real opportunity. If we can get D&D out to the un-jaded masses, and make it fun, we will revitalize RPGs. They are much cooler than computer games. They take an active mind-set. They are not limited by pixels and big budgets. They are the best games in the world. We just have to make sure more people realize that with a good introduction and a good attitude.

Funny, maybe I’m a curmudgeon after all.